NEW DELHI: Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday said the Election Commission (ECI) will follow its rule book and deploy ‘Anganwadi’ workers at all polling booths during the upcoming Bihar assembly elections to help verify the identity of burqa-clad voters.“Our Anganwadi workers will be deployed at all polling booths for verifying the identity of burqa-clad women. The guidelines of the commission are very clear about this — how identity is verified inside a polling station — and they will be strictly followed,” Kumar said, according to news agency PTI.
He made the remarks while addressing a press conference in Delhi to announce the Bihar election schedule. Voting will take place in two phases, on November 6 and 11, with the counting scheduled for November 14.An ‘Anganwadi’, which means ‘courtyard shelter’ in Hindi, is a type of rural child care centre started in 1975 as part of the government’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme to combat child hunger and malnutrition. An Anganwadi worker, usually a woman selected from the local community, serves as a community-based frontline honorary worker of the ICDS.The issue of burqa-clad voters was raised by the BJP, a member of Bihar’s ruling National Democratic Alliance, during the ECI’s two-day meeting in Patna with recognised state parties last week.Also Read | ‘Ensure voters are genuine’: Bihar BJP’s ‘burqa’ request to EC; RJD sees ‘political ploy’“We have urged the ECI to ensure that the tallying of faces of voters, especially burqa-clad women, must be ensured with respective EPIC cards so that only genuine voters get to exercise their franchise,” state BJP president Dilip Jaiswal said after the meeting on Saturday.Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha defended the party’s demand, saying that if a woman wearing a ‘ghoonghat’ (a veil traditionally worn by Hindu women) can lift it to cast her vote, the same rule should apply to women wearing a ‘burqa’ (worn by Muslim women).Also Read | ‘Country same for all’: Bihar deputy CM defends burqa check demand; draws ‘ghoonghat’ parallel“This has always been a subject of debate… voting was being done incorrectly while wearing a ‘burqa’ or a ‘ghoonghat’. So, it is valid to ask: if you can check (the identity) by removing a ‘ghoonghat’, then why not while wearing a ‘burqa’? The country is same for everyone,” Sinha added.
